Another Amazing Change in Pregnant Women’s Bodies

A mother’s body undergoes dynamic changes during pregnancy. Many changes prepare her body for birth and feeding an infant after it is born. And some changes are used directly by her body or the baby during pregnancy. For example, a mother-to-be grows an entirely new organ to support the growing child in her womb—the placenta. How did evolution figure that out?

New research published in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Nature has identified another powerful change a pregnant woman undergoes: Her small intestine’s inner lining nearly doubles in size during pregnancy and breastfeeding—when the mother’s body, the child in the womb, and then the newborn infant need nutrients in greater abundance (Live Science, December 13, 2025).

Scientists have long understood that a primary role of the small intestine is to absorb important nutrients from food: fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. The lining of the small intestine is thin and backed by many tiny blood vessels. This thin lining allows these nutrients to pass from digested food directly into the blood stream. When a woman becomes pregnant and begins lactating, her body releases hormones that trigger the intestinal lining to grow. Scientists surmise that this action occurs in order to greatly increase the mother’s ability to take nutrients from food—nutrients that are in far greater demand by both the mother’s body and the baby’s body during those times.

As knowledge of the human body increases, so does our appreciation for its complexity. Human life, which Charles Darwin and his modern followers claim could have come about by mindless evolutionary forces, continues to show itself, when honestly examined, to be a marvelously engineered miracle of creation. To learn more, read or listen to Evolution and Creation: What Both Sides Miss.